Crime in Ireland 1945-95: Here Be Dragons (Clarendon Studies in Criminology) [Hardcover]

The genealogy that links Celtic and Chinese Dragons is not clear but Chris Patten is seen by successive UK Governments to be a handy dragon wrangler. The Chinese Dragon treated him with occasionally bemused disdain. The Dragons that Brewer et al speak of are those of early cartographers who fancifully populated terra incognita with these fabulous beasts.

I can recommend this book to Chris Patten should he take up the task of chairing the independent commission on policing in Northern Ireland. However, I would also want to recommend a more radical collection, the special issue of Critical Criminology on Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland. Not only are both worthwhile attempts to get to grips with policing and crime in a divided society they are rare. It is this that Brewer et al address themselves to. The book appears in a series on criminology and is very much addressed to criminologists. It seeks to persuade them to look beyond paramilitary activity and State responses to it. In short to consider `ordinary crime', albeit in extraordinary circumstances. They make a strong case for using the island of Ireland as a test for criminological theories and for comparative criminology between it and the UK.

They do this through both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data is extensive - 33 figures, 19 tables and a further 28 appended tables and allows comparisons within Ireland and to England and Wales. The qualitative data arises from two six month periods of fieldwork in the police sub-divisions of Castlereagh and Woodburn. The areas chosen in East and West Belfast were chosen to reflect the spatial location of the community divide. In-depth interviews were carried out with 110 individuals and 10 groups. Introductions were made by local community organisations so, perhaps, the authors should have considered the extent to which they were a `buffer or gatekeeper' (p126).

However, despite the compendiousness of the material a number of crucial matters - of criminological and political interest - go unaddressed; as they admit (p7-8). `White collar' and professional or organised crime too often go astray in criminological accounts and are important here because of the findings about the criminal activities of paramilitaries. Broadly Loyalist paramilitaries were seen to be involved in the drugs trade directly whereas the Republicans licensed others but both used the control of drugs and other crime as a resource for establishing credibility. To add to the complexity it was alleged that the RUC used 'ordinary' crime and criminals in its intelligence work. Clearly all these factors will be thrown into new configurations. The cease-fire was seen by many respondents to have encouraged the drugs trade - though Hollywood (in McEvoy and Gormally) argues that a moral panic over drug use serves the different purposes of paramilitaries, politicians, police and media alike.

Another admitted authorial omission is that of gender and crime. Yet 'rape' merits eleven indexed entries and three pages of quantitative discussion. They suggest that the higher rate in Northern Ireland (clearly diverging from 1973) may represent under-reporting in Ireland. No suggestion is made for why rates for England and Wales fall between those for the two jurisdictions of Ireland. Much criminology ignores gender as much as it has Ireland yet the militancy of both communities and military responses to it calls for a gendered analysis that examines the similarities between the men on both sides of the peace lines and in the armoured cars. The authors see the strength of communities (gained in part from division and opposition) as having had protective effects against the otherwise criminalising potential of industrialisation and 'the Troubles' but the contribution of women is ignored.

The historical scope and sociological breadth of the study means that others may find deficiencies in the material but as a criminologist I am glad to be reminded that not everything from the West is bad (the USA as criminological laboratory) and that not all of Europe is to the East. It also reminds me of the nagging doubts I had about attending the British Criminology Conference last year in Belfast. I overcame these out of curiosity and belief in the importance of the theme of that year's conference 'Peace-making and Conflict Resolution'.

It remains to be seen if Patten slays or is slain by the Dragon - and who he sees the damsel to be.

References

Kieran McEvoy and Brian Gormally (eds) Critical Criminology: An International Journal Special Theme Issue `Critical Criminology and Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland' Vol. 8 No. 1 Spring 1997